Queen Victoria had been a widow for 26 years when she celebrated her Golden Jubilee. That's when a young Indian Muslim servant named Abdul Karim came to work at the palace and soon became Victoria's favorite. She elevated his status and charged him with teaching her Urdu and Indian culture. They spent so much time together that people were talking. Even a hint of impropriety was enough to cause Britain's ruling authorities and Victoria's family to panic.  

The British monarchy has been known to be better than the KGB at covering up its scandals and destroying evidence. But where there are secrets, there are detectives lurking nearby (especially when it comes to the affairs of the royal family). Queen Victoria’s kids did their best to cover up her private life, especially the relationship she formed with Indian servant, Abdul Karim. All records of Victoria’s young “munshi” (teacher), as she called him, were supposedly destroyed by relatives, but a discovery of Abdul’s lost diary in 2010 revealed a complex relationship suggesting that the two were more than friends. Did the Queen, 40 years his senior have a not-so-secret crush or was this relationship a way to fill the void of loneliness?

The relationship between the queen and Karim is the subject of the biographical drama Victoria & Abdul set to be released in September. Meanwhile, you can get some background on the real story with an at Messy Messy Chic.

Every now and then you have a thought that just blows your mind because it seems so obvious, but is so strange. The internet likes to call them "shower thoughts" though many of us have them before bed or other places.

Wherever you come up with those amazing thoughts of your own and no matter how brilliant your shower thoughts are, you won't want to miss this Buzzfeed list of shower thoughts that are truly eye-opening.

Get Schwifty by SergioDoe

The fastest way to get schwifty is through a montage, where all of the training, preparing and growing as a character can be condensed into a few minutes, so even viewers with ADD can enjoy the journey. But it takes more than schwift to become the best worst people in the multiverse- it takes apathy, recklessness and a punk attitude that says to the world "take these cronenbergs I accidentally created by playing god and shove them where the Meseeks don't shine!" Well, that and a daft mind immune to logic and linear reasoning...

The lucky people who bring home this Get Schwifty t-shirt by SergioDoe will win a new perspective on life, as Rick and Morty fans around the world compliment them on their great shirt!

Visit SergioDoe's Facebook fan page and Tumblr, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more action packed designs:

View more designs by SergioDoe | More Cartoon T-shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

(YouTube link)

Almost exactly a year ago, Grant Woolard gave us a fine mashup of classical music by the world's greatest composers. It's still a treat to listen to! Now he's back with volume two. This one features a blend of 52 familiar classics by such diverse names as Mozart, John Philip Souza, Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, and Scott Joplin. They go together quite well. -via Digg

Just do it. Once a day. Stepping out of your comfort zone isn't easy, but it pays off down the line. Like anything else, it gets easier with practice. Before you know it, your comfort zone might even grow to be a comfortable size! This is the latest from Invisible Bread.

We already know that octopuses are great at camouflage, but they are also great mimics. With those tentacles, they can do amazing things! Designer and illustrator Gabe Pyle knows an octopus that is a master of disguise, and can make himself into a dozen other animals that are definitely not octopuses. -via Pleated-Jeans

It was an unlikely plan, but our hero had nothing to lose. If he didn't get out of the grocery store, he'd eventually end up eaten. He mentally prepared himself, then leapt for freedom.

Be sure to watch the entire video to see how his venture ended.

(Video Link)

-via Gifsboom

(Photo: Gary Van Handley)

You may seen shoes tied together and hanging over steet lamps and poles in urban environments. But never like this! Pejac, a street artist from Spain, left 4 sculptures on London streets that look like hanging shoes, but they face the wrong way. He hopes to inspire child-like leaps of imagination. Street Art News quotes him:

You do not have to be an artist or a child to have a different view of reality. This work is for those who are looking to let their imagination drift away with gravity. Or possibly more for all those who have forgotten to do so.

-via Colossal

(Comic via Gemma Correll)

When Myers-Briggs came up with their test to categorize people as either introverted or extroverted they couldn't have known what an impact it would make on the world.

(Comic via find chaffy)

Now, nearly twenty years later, the internet community at large is obsessed with the concept, but if their posts are to be believed the introverts far outnumber the extroverts, at least when it comes to posting online.

(Comic via Owlturd)

If you're an introvert you'll totally understand these comics and relate to the artist's view of the world.

(Comic via Introvert Doodles)

If you're an extrovert, or an I-don't-know-what-I-am, then these comics will be your guide to understanding the ways of the introverted, and they will explain a lot about your "weird" friend's "strange" behavior.

(Comic via C. Cassandra)

See 20+ Comics That Introverts Will Understand here

It appears the internet has actually run out of optical illusions to share, so until an artist like Dudolf creates a new one for us to stare at we're staring at this brick wall illusion that made the rounds in 2014.

See if you can figure out what's stuck in between the bricks in the wall before you scroll down to see the answer below.

This is definitely one of those “illusions” that can't be unseen once the answer is revealed, since it's something our eyes have trouble processing so once they're told what to see they see it every time.

Anyways, enough stalling, here's what's stuck in the wall:

It's a cigar! Did you see it immediately or did your eyes keep telling you it was a crack in the brick with some little gray thing sticking out? Yeah, same here...

-Via Boing Boing

It's hard to remember what it was like seeking answers to those inane questions that randomly pop into our heads before the internet put those ridiculous answers at our fingertips.

Here's a video that answers a question you may have asked yourself before- how do blind people know when to stop wiping when they're on the toilet?

(YouTube Link)

Blind film critic Tommy Edison has a good sense of humor about sighted people asking him silly questions, and now he can tell anyone who asks this question to Google his video and stop being such a dingleberry!

-Via Laughing Squid

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research, now in all-pdf form. Get a subscription now for only $25 a year!

Research about smells and things that smell
compiled by Dirk Manley, Improbable Research staff

Smelly Socks for Malaria control
“Sugar-Fermenting Yeast as an Organic Source of Carbon Dioxide to Attract the Malaria Mosquito Anopheles gambiae,” Renate C. Smallegange, Wolfgang H. Schmied, Karel J. van Roey, Niels O. Verhulst, Jeroen Spitzen, Wolfgang R. Mukabana, and Willem Takken, Malaria Journal, vol. 9, 2010, pg. 292. The authors, at Wageningen University, The Netherlands, and the University of Nairobi, Kenya, report:

“Human foot odour was released from nylon socks (40 Den, 100% polyamide, HEMA, The Netherlands) worn by WHS (laboratory experiments) or KJvR (semi-field and field experiments) for 12 h prior to the experiments…”

Scratch ‘n’ Scratch ‘n’ Scratch ‘n’ Sniff
“Scratch Density Differentiates Microsmic from Normosmic and Anosmic Subjects on the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test,” R.L. Doty, A. Genow, and T. Hummel, Perceptual and Motor Skills, vol. 86, no. 1, February 1998, pp. 211-216. The authors are at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia.

Urban Smellscapes
“Smelly Maps: The Digital Life of Urban Smellscapes,” Daniele Quercia, Rossano Schifanella, Luca Maria Aiello, and Kate McLean, Ninth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media 2015. The authors explain:

Fans of the Chicago Bears football team were excited! Inside this giant claw machine was a life-size plush verison of Staley, the team mascot. It would be an incredible prize, if only they could move it to the drop bin.

What they didn't know was that the plush bear was actually a person inside a Staley suit.

(Video Link)

-via Tastefully Offensive

A photo posted by Catherine Marshall (@zizzyballord) on Mar 25, 2016 at 9:21am PDT

Catherine Marshall is a South African travel writer and journalist who lives in Sydney, Australia. While flying over the Strait of Messina separating Sicily from the Italian peninsula, she snapped this amazing photo of her plane's shadow transposed over a rainbow.

-via Marilyn Terrell

A few different sets of photos taken in North Korea have been shared online lately, and these rare pics are shaping the way we see life in that mysterious country we know so little about.

And even though we're inclined to believe photos taken in North Korea will be full of horror and suffering the pics show a country functioning much like any other.

Pyongyang even has a metro system which Kim Jong-Un will occasionally talk about with pride, an underground railway which few foreigners have ever seen until Elliott Davies shared his photos online.

Elliott begins his photographic tour of the Pyongyang metro with this video showing what it's like to enter the station and ride the 110 meter long escalator down into the nuclear bunker/subway station.

(Vimeo Link)

See Stopping All Stations - The Pyongyang Metro here